I don’t really know very many technical or professional music terms. So let’s just say it’s a great song and incidentally, great source material, that yields some incredible remixes. And heeh dey is.

Christian Strobe Remix: More industrial, harsh, overwhelming, dancey. 

Knocks Cover (feat. Mandy Lee): The Knocks live up to their incredible catchy/dancey/happy legacy. It’s a wonderful recreation, with the featured Mandy Lee providing vocals that I can’t quite describe but I’ve been noticing a lot more lately. It always just reminds me of Norah Jones D:

Man Without Country Remix: Re-imagined drums and hook. Different but fantastic. 

The Clash – Rock the Casbah (Funkagenda Remix) 

Kool & the Gang – Get Down (Alex Louvré Edit) 

Talking Heads – Girlfriend is Better (Bit Funk Edit)

Esthetick, since its inception, has been focused on my ideas about advertising. Recently, I’ve really had the urge to expand that in hopes of posting more frequently and maybe interesting a few more people. Now, I really enjoy sharing a good song to an appreciative recipient or audience. I think it’s ‘the best’. So with this irresistible pun-headline, I am expanding this blog to include music I think is worth sharing. It’ll probably be a decent amount of remixes, (some, yes, of top 40), hypem.com songs, indie rock for lack of a better term, and probably something like hourly Skrillex posts. When possible, I’ll try and talk about music AND advertising.

I’ve commemorated this step with visual switchup to the blog. This leg of the journey is also represented visually in the image above.

I’ll start with two remixes of Bon Iver that I find to be quite amazing. I do not have a clue what a Re-Rub is, but it sounds very similar to a re-fix. Think of adding a beat to Bon Iver, chopping it up a little bit, filling it out more. Basically something you can (heavily) nod your head to.

Bon Iver – Towers (Karma Kid Re-Rub)

Bon Iver – Skinny Love (Das Kapital Re-Fix)

Hope it improves your Sunday.

I’ve heard a brand described as a culmination of every experience and interaction that a consumer has with a company. They also say that brands are like people. Well a few weeks ago I was faced with an idea: What if your branded personality was that you were a total jackass? And what if that was the reason people liked it?

To understand better, here’s a little context:

I was reading through a Techcrunch article poking fun at those Wikipedia donation banners. I started browsing through the comments until I came across a rather brash, (and from what I saw, mostly  trollish) criticism of the author and those participating in the conversation.

A brief explanation, if you don’t care to read it: Basically, T-Shirt Hell posted, to which two people responded and called out their service. Instead of apologizing, T-Shirt Hell calls them trolls and liars, in no way offering to make up for their plight. Intrigue!

Well I usually don’t post on these forums, but I couldn’t resist. We talk about social media disasters too much not to. Here is my comment, and T-Shirt Hell’s ensuing response. I won’t summarize it, it’s worth reading in all of its glory.

(Side note: I’d like to point out that the ‘most offensive products on the internet over the last 10 years’ are probably not T-shirts. But alas, that is not the point).

Anyway, so this guy posting is crazy and absurd and I immediately posted to Facebook and laughed. This was brand suicide right? Well, take a look at the brand’s voice on Facebook.

It begs the question of audience and voice – we all assume that we’re trying to gather the well-to-do, easily offended customer and cater to their every dollar. But something I hadn’t considered is: what if you’re appealing to the cynic, the customer who identifies with a brand that refuses to cater or take shit from anyone or anything just for a buck? Could, for this brand, this be the correct tone of voice? Since it goes against my very core to say yes, I’m still going to say that if you’re putting your brand into a new space maybe you should try and draw in customers, rather than call them ‘fucking moron sheep idiots’.  But it’s something worth considering: he has branded himself more strongly in a few posts than almost any other company I’ve seen. And obviously, from its apparent success, it is a brand that its customers identify with.

A portfolio piece about a brand like this: Now that’s something I’d like to see.

Eventually, they decided that nobody could tell these people to quit. It was their release, their treat to themselves, one easy thing that brings them happiness. If anyone told them to quit, even their families, it became a ‘me versus you’ situation.

When the team reached the core of their message, there wasn’t actually an official briefing. The client didn’t need to be sold on the idea because everyone, including them and the creates, were present throughout the process. What creatives and the client can see, feel, and know together is worth so much more than a deck. A more collaborative process means a stronger consensus. So when they reached the point of the brief, they had two main takeaways: smoking is all about control, and the message needed to come from the individuals themselves. From there, the creative added “I’ll quit when I’m ready. And nobody can make me quit but me” There was the insight into control that made everyone involved believe in that sentiment.

They had decided to forgo flat-out telling their audience anything.

“Nobody can make me quit but me”

No one could tell them to quit. But when they were in a room, talking to each other rather than an outsider, that was when they were most receptive. They needed to be communicating to themselves. The sentiment spawned the concept that smokers would write letters to themselves. The letters would tell them why they should quit because they themselves were the only ones who had any voice in the matter.

When the campaign hit, the website that was set up was purposed to keep emotions running and and resonating. There wasn’t a forceful tone – not a ‘call now’ or ‘get involved’ voice. Instead, they knew that people who were there were already interested in some way, and they needed to continue their ‘quitting’ train of thought. So they showed them more videos, more letters, more stories so that they would know there were other people out there going out of their way to do this. It would keep them thinking about the importance of this and what it meant to those that they cared about. It was a way to get people engaged, if they wanted to, another point in the process.

It was an incredible way to tell a story. But it was also an incredible story itself of account planning and strategy. It’s a true testament to having a message that resonates deeply with your audience, one that comes through arduous research and listening.

So that was my campaign geekout. I want to thank Steve Kesselman for taking the time to talk with me about this campaign and recount all the details of the process. I also want to thank Tracy Wong for initially coming to U of O and talking about it, and then listening to my interest in the campaign and getting me in contact with those responsible.

Bonus post in a few days about the Media Buying part of this campaign. It held its own as a creative outlet for this campaign in a way that I had no anticipated.

A little background: WDCW was working with the Washington Department of Health to combat tobacco use. The challenge:

Despite declining smoking rates for Washington state’s general adult population, tobacco use among the working poor remained relatively unchanged.

The main takeaways for the Too Long, Didn’t Read crowd:

• Research research research: The strongest and most meaningful messages come from deep insights. Real deep. This campaign is the truest testament to finding that thought that really makes your audience tick. And it just so happens to be for one of the best causes advertising can have.
• Collaborative Process: Including Creatives, as well as the Client, in research process means less convincing: If you’re all listening, you’re all finding the same insights.
• Take your time with the audience: When you’re speaking to a hard-to-reach audience, having a thorough understanding of them is essential. It might take multiple iterations of ideas to really speak to them.
• It’s all still a campaign: This wasn’t a glaringly obvious takeaway, but it was crucial: know what your audience is feeling when they see each of your messages. If a person has just seen one commercial and is supposed to go to your website, what will they be feeling at that stage? What about once they’ve contributed content? Anticipate how they will feel at different points in the campaign and use that to tweak your messaging.

They began knowing that their target were working class people, low on the socio-economic rungs and hard-pressed for a break, even worse off when it came to luxuries. Beginning with on-the-street interviews, the team asked open ended questions, without a hypothesis, to get a notion of what the audience’s lives were like. Once they figured that out, then they could see how cigarettes fit in. They asked them about their work, their home lives, their hobbies, things to let them become antiquated with their audience, to not be outsiders forcing messages down their throats. The team wanted to understand the target’s lifestyle, because it was not their own.

When the focus groups began, they learned more about their relation to tobacco. They asked very open questions, not leading them in any direction. The team tried to get people to speak honestly without thinking too hard. If they asked ‘why do you smoke’ the group members would have thought about the answer that they were supposed to give. By asking questions like this, the team explored moments in their lives, moments when they did choose to smoke, and what those moments meant to them (smoke breaks during the focus groups were particularly insightful).

There were those who would never quit. There were men and women who said they felt guilty because their families wanted them to stop. They hated being told to quit, no matter who was saying it – an immediate defense mechanism would kick in. They didn’t like being told to quit because it was such a personal item to them. Something they had control over, something they could choose to use for a moment as their reward in their lives, a moment when they were in control. “Cigarettes are like their best friend,” Kesselman noted “its for them, it’s a positive. Its their time, and their choice, something they do for them. No one should talk to them about it because it’s no ones business but their own”

But numbers showed that the more people tried to quit, the more likely they were to succeed. Their team realized they needed to get the smokers to just think about it, and to try. Not necessarily to be successful, just get them one step closer.

So the first step was to break through that defense. Entertainment  was the first approach – giving the target something to watch, a luxury, if you will. From this came the idea for a comedic, lighthearted ‘Quit Force’. The QuitForce would get the audience laughing with the QuitForce. Apparently it was quite funny, but was still cut by the client because, as all parties involved realized – the target would enjoy it, but wouldn’t necessarily care.

Because of this, what I think is the most inspiring part of this campaign came to be. They dug deeper, found the real idea they needed to focus on, and created a story that was both touching and effective.

Part II coming shortly…

I got on the bandwagon. This post won’t be about how apparently it’s pretty much exactly the same as other music services, yet somehow advertised themselves to be a revolution… no, right now I’m thinking about their ads. Now, I had originally written this before I signed up for the premium account. I saw the value in it (especially offline listening with the iPhone app) and absolutely detested the ads.

The ads. Oh… the ads.

Two anecdotes about their wonderful ads.

I’m sitting there, listening to some Janelle Monae, and really diggin’ it. Then, this song starts playing. A great song. A ‘start nodding your head and singing along even though you haven’t heard it before’ song. One I’d awkwardly sidle up to the register and ask the employee of whatever store I was in what track was playing kind of song. This song.

Well, it pretty well fit with what I was listening to. I loved the sample it gave me, then the lead singer told me to listen to his album on Spotify. I did. Great job, Spotify!

Now, technically, this ad played its part – upped their click throughs, got an album listen. And they won’t know it, but I’ll definitely go to their concert when they swing through. Deeper, though. It provided a real benefit. It gave me something I love – I got to discover a new summer jam. More: I get to tell my friends, I get to use it to soundtrack a Friday night gathering. All this incredible, deep benefit to their audience, from some banner ad. Phenomenal.

Now, the second anecdote: I’m listening to the ‘progressive breaks’ of Way Out West, revisiting some old classics, and really getting into the groove of things.
(might want to skip about halfway through to get a feel. Needless to say, I was zonin’).

Then, BAM! I’m listening to Bob Marley! The tasty licks of The Doors!

Like, holy shit! They’ve got Bob Marley on this thing? I finally have a way to listen to some classic Doors albums?

I turned off the sound, turned it back on again because I realized that if you turn the sound too low the commercial pauses (clever girl, spotify) and sat at my computer, pausing all work, to think about how stupid it is to remind me that Aretha Franklin has a greatest hits album.

Then I realized something about this volume trick they did: it creates an us vs. them mentality. It’s saying “you wanted to skip the commercial? Like you do on every other medium? Too bad, you will sit here and listen to this odd-voiced man tell you to upgrade to spotify premium.” It let’s the user know that this is Advertising: one-way, business interested, tell you what to do advertising that doesn’t care what the customer feels. It makes it that unpleasant time-placeholder, only there because that’s the way advertising works – it interrupts those free things you love.

What irks me is that there’s so much opportunity. I’m pretty confident that Spotify could somehow find out more about me. Digital footprints and all that (I mean, it connects to your Facebook! Use your ‘liked’ bands, look for local bands through your location… something!). Aside from that, they could’ve asked: what music do you like? Where are you located? Choose some genres, some decades you’d like your ads to focus on. Hell, talk to Hypem.com, Pandora, get some targeting going on.

So why not give links to concerts (like iConcertCal? Target the ads to genres, playlists, labels, you might like? Give back to your supporters, start a dialogue with them, make it a two-way conversation. Hell, disguise it: if it’s so valuable to the consumer that we barely recognize we’re being advertised to, I sure won’t care about its intent either way.

The point of all that would be to give some BACK to the customer. Make the ads provide that benefit that I randomly happened upon with Fitz and the Tantrums. Now that’d be a way to make it a real money grabber.

What this resulted in was a brief that I made for fun last night (yeah… really). Comments welcome: I put it together somewhat quickly, and am still searching to see if there’s a site that already has filled this niche. And the SMIT needs work, but hopefully it gets the point across.

Also, stay tuned for a multi-part walkthrough of a pretty cool campaign. Been working on it on and off for awhile, and it’s just about ready.

First things first: it’s pretty damn fun. It was the end of the year, people had stuff they were very proud of. Don’t dread it, it’s overwhelmingly positive. Also, kill it in suspenders. Yeah, that was an order.

So, the setup: We’re all in a big room, admiring each other’s work that we had seen grow over the last few months. Over the course of the first hour people trickled in, introductions were made and names were forgotten. It took me awhile to buck up the courage to approach people I didn’t know: it seemed weird, oddly forced, and potentially awkward. But over the next three hours I grew more comfortable with presenting myself, and my work, to strangers.

Here are some things I learned:

• People are here to see your work, so grab them and make them see it. Spot someone who, if even for a moment, is idly looking around the room. Make introductions, then bring them to your table. That’s what you’re both here for.

• Clean your screen: We’ve got some beautiful projects, don’t let them be seen through a smudged display.

• I got compliments on having over-ear headphones for viewing my videos – I guess some find it a little discomforting when dozens of people are utilizing the same in-ear buds over the course of a few hours. Also, it cuts ‘em off from distractions.

• Make your table pretty, make it alluring – First off, a macbook screen isn’t going to catch your eye from across the room. Screens also aren’t too big, and the impressiveness of a project can get lost. Most importantly, an unattended computer has every opportunity to screw you over (crashing, internet cutting out, windows getting lost, your meticulously hidden diary being discovered and viewed as a piece). Just be watchful.

Example of big pretty things:

• If it can be printed, print it – if you have multiple projects on your computer, some may fall by the wayside. I had a video and two brandbooks on my portfolio site, with 4(?) other projects laid out. I was more proud of the video, and would end up pushing people towards it rather than the books.

And it’s just so much more impressive when it’s all laid out.

• Have a pitch for everything and know how you’re going to present your work. I had a number of projects that weren’t campaigns (actually, almost all) including brandbooks, charity project ideas, self-analyzing writings… people didn’t really know what was going on when they walked up to my table. I felt like I was reading them a menu when I had to explain everything. Avoid this, if only to make yourself feel better about all the interactions.

• Know your dream job and know your title – I keep expecting people to tell me they have X position open: even if that’s the case, they want to know what path you’re taking. And the more confident you are, the more professional you seem.

• Finally, ask for specific feedback – I told a number of people “if you have any feedback that’d be great” which resulted in “oh it’s all very nice….” This was my own fault. Ask for specifics – point them to a piece, ask them what works and what doesn’t. Ask them what they’d change. Don’t give them leads, force them to make a decision about your pieces.

Overall, look forward to it. Dread the weeks before it, because many of my classmates went through hell during that time period. But it’s a grand old time, a great place to make some connections, and an even better place to revel, one last time, in the collective success of an incredibly creative, professional, and fun group.

Photo cred: @debkmorrison and @KellyAnneMeyers tweeted pics from the event.